Of Smoke and Fire
by mightjustbe
Summary: Will a case that is reminiscent of Brennan's past be the catalyst for her relationship with Booth changing in irreversible ways? Stay tuned to find out... T for graphic gore and possibly language in the future!


The blood was everywhere--coating the walls, smeared on the floor. You could see long stripes where the victim had been dragged out of the room, his fingers clawing at the wood-grain floor, leaving chunks of flesh with the blood. Her stomach turned as she looked it over. "Where are the remains?" 

Booth took a deep breath. It was hard to keep composure when he knew what was coming. What Brennan was about to go through. "Maybe we should let Zach do this one, Bones..."

She rolled her eyes, "You don't like him. Why would you want him to work the case? Besides, he has a fairly weak tolerance for gore..." She studied his face and saw the concern etched in his features. "What's going on, Booth? What aren't you telling me?"

He sighed, turning to look at her finally. "I don't know if you should be on this case. Bones, I left some things out... The victims... it was a brother and a sister."

"And? Booth, I really don't..."

"Let me finish. The parents are missing. The siblings... the brother was 19, the sister was 15..." He saw the flash of pain across her face before lowered her gaze to the blood smears on the floor. "Just let Zach do this one..."

"I can do this, Booth. It's my job." She motioned for Zach and Hodgins to enter, both of them gingerly stepping through the room. "Zach, we're going to go find these remains. Hodgins, I want you to gather anything you can find. Especially this," She pointed to the ground, the miniscule pieces of flesh. "It will help us to figure out how they died, which happened first. Also, get a sample of every drop of blood. There's a chance that they fought their attackers, and maybe we can get lucky." She tossed a weary smile to Booth, who shook his head. He knew she would refuse to back down. That was why he'd tried to corner Zach first.

* * *

Flashback:

"Hey, pipsqueak, c'mere for a sec." He jerked his head in the direction of Hodgins' office, knowing Brennan would only tear herself away from her work and go there if she needed something from him. He took a few steps in that direction himself before noticing there was a lack of movement behind him. He paused, and turned, "Are you coming, Zach?"

He looked up from the papers he'd been shuffling absentmindedly, "I wasn't planning on it, no."

"Excuse me?" He stared at the young doctor in disbelief as he continued to remain still. "Okay, listen, I know I'm not always nice to you..."

"How about never?" Zach interrupted, abandoning the papers for the computer beside him.

"Fine," Booth muttered through gritted teeth, "But if you do this... I will be nice to you. For an entire month. Just come with me, and hurry, before Bones comes out here and..."

"And what?" He closed his eyes, 'Of course she's going to be directly behind me when I say something like that...' "What don't you want me around for?"

"I'm curious too..." Zach chipped in, earning a harsh glare from the agent. "I thought you said you were going to be nice to me for a whole month?"

"You chose to sit there and play Doctor instead, sorry kid." He looked over at Brennan, her arms crossed stubbornly over her chest, one foot tapping on the floor impatiently. "Bones..."

"What's going on?" She paused, studying him. She was right, there was something wrong. Something was bothering him, and it had to do with her... "Is there a case?"

He sighed, "Yeah, there is. You're going to want to bring everyone... except Angela..." He added, remembering the artist's uneasy stomach.

* * *

He glared at Zach, who looked extrememly pale. "I'm sorry, Booth..." He whispered as he passed him, his case gripped firmly in his shaking hand.

"I know, Zach. Thanks," He offered him a small, friendly smile. Truth be told, he didn't hate the kid. He was a little wierd, but he'd grown accustomed to that as he worked with Brennan and the other squints. He glanced around the room, seeing Hodgins crouched in a corner, staring pensively at what Booth was sure was going to turn out to be some sort of bug with an extremely long, painfully boring explanation of its importance attached to it. "What do you have there, Hodgins?"

Hodgins looked over his shoulder, pointing to the wall, "Did you see this?"

"You mean all the blood, yeah, it's kind of hard to miss."

Hodgins shook his head, standing up, "No, I meant the hidden camera that's aimed at the living room..."

"The what??" Booth approached cautiously, hesitantly, being careful not to mess with evidence. He crouched to where Hodgins had pointed and looked. The conspiracy theorist was right--there was a camera there after all. "Hey, Peters?"

"Yeah?" The tall blond man peaked his head inside the room, an eyebrow raised.

"Get Amy Walters down here..."

"Amy Walters, sir?"

He glared at the young agent, "You know, the redhead you were talking to this morning?"

"Oh, sweet-cheeks, got it..." He turned to leave, laughing at his own joke.

Booth jumped up and turned the agent around harshly, "If I ever hear you speak like that about a woman, let alone a fellow agent, you can bet you'll be nothing more than a desk jockey for the rest of your career, understood?" Peters nodded stiffly, the humor gone from his eyes. Booth released him and turned to see Hodgins watching him, "What?"

"You used to have a thing with her, didn't you?"

"Excuse me?"

Hodgins smiled, nodding, "Yeah, I knew it. Hey, it's alright, your secret is safe with me..." Booth stared at him, shocked. The bug and slime guy could read people? He shrugged it off, surveying the grizzly scene before him once more.

Brennan and Zach came out of the back before long, gesturing for the bodies to be taken to the Jeffersonian now. "We've done what we can here," she whispered, walking past him, her eyes glued to the ground.

"You guys got this?" He asked Hodgins and Zach, already stepping out of the room, eventually hearing a half-hearted "yeah, sure" from Hodgins. He jogged down the hall and the stairs, finding her on the landing, her head in her hands. "Bones..." He whispered, sitting next to her. "Hey, come here," He gently pulled her to him, wrapping his arms around her. "It's going to be okay..."

"How can you know that? Those kids lost everything. And for all we know, their own parents did this to them..." Her tearful rant was cut short by Booth's ringing phone, "You should get that..."

"Booth," He said gruffly. "Yeah... okay, we'll be there soon..."

She looked at him expectantly, "Did they bring in the parents?"

"Yep... in body bags. Go get the boys, and meet me in the car--the case just got a little harder." He whispered, watching as she frowned and nodded solemnly. "Hey, Bones?"

"Yeah?"

He hugged her tightly, enjoying the way she tensed before she relaxed into him, her own arms snaking around him. "It's going to be okay, trust me. Whatever happened, we'll get justice for them. I promise."

"Thank you..." She whispered, pulling away and heading back up the stairs. He watched her, studied the way she moved. She was still upset, but he couldn't blame her. He took solace in the fact that it would be changed once the case got underway, once she was in the midst of the facts and could rest assured that he would be out there, doing his FBI thing and finding the person(s) responsible. Everything was going to be just fine...

* * *

AN: In trying to find some inspiration for my two unfinished stories, this came along. And another one that I'm trying to make a one-shot. So keep your eye out for all of them:) please r & r, and tell me if you like it!!


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